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1960s

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1961

Charlotte Smiley Read
gig4smile@aol.com

I hope you all noticed the article written by Kate Pond in the spring 2009 issue. Creator of the World Sculpture Project, Kate has designed five sun-aligned sculptures in Stanstead, Quebec; Oslo, Norway; Honolulu, HI; Sendai, Japan; and Nelson, New Zealand. For more info, visit vermont­sculpture.com.

Peggy Hatcher Stevens and Zeus live at Keowee Key on Lake Keowee near Clem­son, SC. Peg says it is an active community with wonderful and interesting people. Daughter Amie lives in Chapel Hill, NC, with husband Bill and their three young boys; son Steve lives in Sacramento and has an 11-year-old son.

Kenall, FL, resident Carol Geffner Fontani transferred to Sarah Lawrence in 1959. She met her husband, Vittorio, in Florence, Italy, during summer school. They had daughter Marina in 1968 and moved to Spain so Vittorio could write. Son Maru was born in 1969, and twin sons were born in 1970. Carol has taught high school math and art for more than 29 years. Retired in 2007, she is painting again in her studio and loves it. She has five grandchildren. Vittorio passed away 14 years ago.

Mickey Mannion-Baruzzi and Peter spent last winter on Captiva Island, FL, reading, fishing, painting, and enjoying a visit from Paula Rosen Janis and husband Paul Schuler.

Edna Simons Alvarez is a retired estate-planning attorney and lecturer. Daughters Anica and Amira live in London, England, and Berkeley, CA, respectively. She is the grandmother of three “absentee grandchildren” (in London) and an active participant in the war against hunger. She loves travel, the arts, birdwatching, and “all of life’s wonders.”

Jossi Ball Berger lives in London. Widowed since 2002, she continues a very small psychotherapy practice and attends classes in piano, painting, literature, and exercise. Her two daughters live in London; her son, his wife, and their two kids are in Sydney, Australia.

Joan Horowitz Behr and Dick enjoyed having company and showing off the beautiful Victorian town of Cape May, NJ. They spend summers playing tennis, biking, editing, going to the beach, and enjoying the area’s good food and clean air. Judy Brown Tulchin visited them in July; the group took the ferry over to Lewes, had lunch, and spent a lovely day with Val Blumenthal Gordon. Joan suggested that since most of us are hitting 70 this year, we should share some of the special ways we are celebrating. She and Dick are planning a trip to Morocco in April to celebrate her 70th and their 25th wedding anniversary.

In NYC Ellen Rein Goldin and Reina Gothelf Reisler celebrated Reina’s 70th birthday during the summer. After lunch in the theater district they took in the Broadway show Blithe Spirit. Ellen is also in touch with Alice Chase Kaufman, who lives in Larkspur, CA, Paula Rosen Janis of White Plains, NY, and Joan Horowitz Behr in Philadelphia. Ellen and husband Joel attended his 50th reunion at Amherst College last June. They have two grandchildren: Brooke, 6, and Harry, 3, who live nearby and visit often.

Paula Janis is still doing live performances of her TV show The Magic Garden, which went off the air in 1985. Paula says the 30-somethings who watched the show as children now bring their own children to see her and co-host Carole sing and tell stories. Believe it or not, there are about 26,000 friends signed up on the Magic Garden’s Facebook page, and the show’s DVDs are doing well (available at caroleandpaula.com). Paula and husband Paul Schueller spent a few days last winter with Margie Levin Millman and Will in Charleston, SC. This past summer they visited with Mickey Mannion Baruzzi and Peter on Cape Cod. They also see Ellen Rein Goldin and Joel and get to­gether with Judy Brown Tulchin when she’s in NYC. “Keeping up with old friends is the best!” says Paula.

Patty Paige Johnson is marking her 70th by biking with Leonard almost every day, swimming in the ocean from May to October, tending a bigger vegetable garden, keeping a few chickens, and enjoying seven grandchildren, ages 5 to 11. She contributes to several local land trusts and nonprofits and serves on the Falmouth, MA, board of appeals. The Johnsons are grateful for good health and lots of energy.

Helen Illingworth Challenger was given a choice by her husband for celebrating her 70th: swim with whale sharks in the Georgia Aquarium or raft down the nearby Chattahoochee River in Atlanta; she chose the former. The aquarium runs a daily after-hours program for eight snorkelers and eight SCUBA divers. After an orientation Helen was outfitted with a wetsuit, oxygen tank, mask, and flippers. In the water she was surrounded by fish, including sharks the size of buses. Helen’s grandchildren were on hand to watch. She plans to do it again when she turns 75. Two weeks later she got the rafting trip as well—a quiet four-hour float with friends.

Joanne Shelley Fuller and Bob enjoy University of Michigan football with their family and an annual trip to Stratford, Ontario—a place Joanne says is well worth a visit. The New York Times has long cited Stratford’s Shakespeare Festival, with a roster of up to 15 shows a year, as the best repertory theater in North America.

Brenda Giombetti Darcey and her husband spend time at two homes in Maine: a summer cottage close to Bowdoin and their new home in Brunswick. Their children were with them at the cottage this summer. Daughter Adrienne and groom Eric were married on a beautiful day on their lawn. Granddaughter Lillian joined the family last spring.

Susan Stark Match and Ron traveled with the Berkshire Choral Festival (based in Sheffield, MA) to sing the Verdi Requiem at the Terezin concentration camp outside of Prague for the annual commemoration of the camp’s liberation by the Russians in 1945. Susan reports that at the opening rehearsal dinner, “Ron (who doesn’t sing) and I were standing on the buffet line and spied Sue Parker Prior and Dick! It was quite a serendipitous mini-reunion! We spent time visiting in between rehearsals and tours.”

Cookie Rapoport Thier and a friend traveled to Europe, exchanging her Boulder, CO, home for a residence in a small village near Pecs, Hungary, and later for one in a small village between Montpellier and Nimes, France. They also visited Cookie’s cousin and his wife in St. Cloud, a suburb of Paris. Cookie says house exchange is “a glorious way to see the world.” Her book, Coaching Clues, has been translated into Chinese; she is thrilled to think that people around the world can profit from her years as an executive coach. Cookie’s son has been appointed director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the US Institute of Peace. He has been involved in Afghanistan since graduating from college in the mid-’90s.

I lunched in Washington, DC, with Judy Tulchin, Val Blumenthal Gordon, Joan Horowitz Behr, Ellie Platzman Palmer, and Cookie Rapoport Thier. After my husband’s family had a weeklong re­union at an ocean house in Oster­ville on Cape Cod this past summer, I had a quick lunch visit with Patty Paige Johnson and Leonard in Falmouth on my way to the airport. Also, Nancy Stevenson and husband Neil came to Michigan for a fun visit while on their way to a wedding in Ann Arbor, MI. I had them working hard transplanting baby white pine trees along my wooded road. I had my annual get-together dinner with Mary Campbell Paddon, but was sorry not to be in Michigan in July when Anne Keller Torell, Betsy Ewing LaMotte, and Sherry Lustenberger Canning were visiting Mary. I was not surprised to learn of all the bridge and golf played that week.

The class extends sympathy to the family of Margot Folsom O’Neal, who passed away suddenly in July. I am grateful for a wonderful 2007 visit from Margot and Jim; they were in Ann Arbor for Margot’s 50th high school reunion. Many may not remember Margot well, as she transferred to Skidmore in her senior year. She was engaged to Jim O’Neal at RPI and lived in Troy with her parents; her father was president of RPI.

If you have pictures, especially of fun reunions, please e-mail them to me. As Susan Stark Match wrote, “Think 2011!”